The Hague Convention of 5 October 1961, Abolishing Legalization for Foreign Public Documents, or the Apostille Convention was entered into force in the Philippines only last on 14 May 2019.
It simplifies the authentication process of public documentsto be used abroad. You will only need acertificationby “an authority designated by the country where the public document was issued.” This is called the Apostille, which came from the French word “apostiller” which means annotation.
Authentication of a public document through Apostille
As per the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA),“Apostillization or Authentication is the Department of Foreign Affairs’ process of verifying the origin of a public document. It certifies the authenticity of the signature and legal authority of the public official who signed it, but it does not certify the contents of the document.”This is needed because even if a public document is issued by the Philippine government:
“The recipient abroad may not be familiar with the identity or official capacity of the person signing the document, or identity of the authority whose seal/stamp it bears.”Thus, an official familiar with the document has to certify its origin to one who is foreign to it. This was the reason for legalization, prior to apostillization. According to the Apostille Handbook:
“Legalisation describes the procedures whereby the signature / seal / stamp on a public document is certified as authentic by a series of public officials along a “chain” to a point where the ultimate authentication is readily recognised by an official of the State of destination and can be given legal effect there. As a practical matter, Embassies and Consulates of the State of destination located in (or accredited to) the State of origin are ideally situated to facilitate this process. However, Embassies and Consulates do not maintain samples of the signatures / seals / stamps of every authority or public official in the State of origin, so an intermediate authentication between the authority or public official that executed the public document in that State and the Embassy or Consulate is often required.”This chain of legalization was considered “cumbersome, time-consuming, and costly. The Apostille Convention does away with the legalization. When attached to the document, an apostille certificate is a proof of authentication to the public document issued in the Philippines. This is valid, as long as it will be used by a State party to the Apostille Convention, except Austria, Finland, Germany and Greece as they have objected to the Philippines’ accession. If not, legalization by the concerned Foreign Embassy / Consulate is still required. If you are to use your documents in the Philippines, apostillization is not needed.
